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Malvern Gazette 7th April 2006
Leader angry at 'bullying' tactics Ralph Madden's criticism of the district council's ruling party came after the authority decided by a majority of 19 to 17 against reversing its decision to close public toilets in Edith Walk and Victoria Road, Malvern, Lower High Street, Upton, and in Tenbury Wells. Despite Lib Dem claims that there was no whip forcing councillors to vote with the party at Monday's meeting, the only Lib Dem to vote against the closure was Stephen Watkins. All Conservative Party members voted against the closure. The council then passed a proposal that the toilets would remain closed for six months, but would not be demolished or sold off while talks with the three town councils continued. The vote followed a leaked email from Coun Clive Smith, published in the Malvern Gazette, which said the Lib Dem administration would be finished if the toilet vote was reversed. "I was not surprised that the Lib Dem faction voted in accordance with the leaked email from Coun Smith, who continues to adopt bully-boy tactics. He and the leader of the Lib Dems do local politics a disservice," said Mr Madden. He added Monday's decision said, in effect, that it was up to town councils to save the toilets and the district council had washed its hands of the problem. According to Mr Madden, meaningful discussions on the future of the toilets future now need to focus on issues such as transferring their ownership to the three towns without strings and the district council agreeing to upgrade toilets requiring renovation. Coun Roger Sutton, district council spokesman for economic and environmental wellbeing, said it would be open to discussing any kind of arrangements that the town councils were willing to suggest. Disregarding the toilets in Victoria Road, Malvern, which he did not think people would mind losing, he said it would cost in excess of £100,000 to refurbish the toilets and maintain them to the required standard. In response to Monday's decision Gazette reader Tony Sumner, from Pendock, suggested that if all local residents used the Council House toilets when they were caught short, the authority would soon change its mind. Clock man quits in row over loos Brian Lawrence, who has been looking after the clock for eight years, this week returned the keys in disgust. He said "overpaid council officers" should have their salaries cut to fund the toilets. Speaking after Monday's council meeting to reconsider the closure, the 66-year-old said: "People want convenient toilets by the riverside. If the council can't stretch itself to accommodate them I think that's very poor." He said the town's other toilets, in Hanley Road, were used only by people passing through, not residents and visitors. Mr Lawrence was the first unpaid volunteer to look after the Pepperpot clock. Before an electric mechanism was installed, he used to wind it every Sunday. In recent years, his job has involved turning the clock forward and back in the spring and autumn, correcting it when it runs slow and removing dead pigeons from the tower. "The clock needs constant attention. I'll be sad to see it running behind time but I've stated my case and I'm a man of principle," he said. Lee Robson, head of community and economic development at MHDC, said: "We value all the work Mr Lawrence has done in the past and we'll be trying persuade him to change his mind and continue maintaining the clock. But if this fails we will have to look for someone else to take over the role." UPTON district councillor Sue Adeney voted once again to close the toilets. After the meeting, where it was decided not to sell or demolish the building for six months while the town and district council continue discussions, she said: "It was an enormously difficult decision to make, but it was my decision. "With the new proposal I feel very hopeful that we can work together now to a satisfactory resolution of the issue." Letters Overpaid at our expense Of greater importance was a second motion, discussed in private, to approve proposed changes to the council's senior management arrangements as set out in report EC742. In due course we may learn a bit more about the contents of report EC742 but two facts are already clear. Firstly, the district council is seriously overmanaged. Malvern Hills is the smallest district in the county with a population of some 74,000 and the council has the smallest workforce. But we have by far the largest number of top managers. The Management Structure in October 2005 consisted of a chief executive, three strategic directors, eight heads of service and an assistant chief executive, whose post was vacant. Ten out of the thirteen were paid over £50,000 pa. All of this was to manage a workforce equivalent to 268 full-time employees. One top manager to 20 employees is not unknown in high-tech industries, but in a district council? Secondly, our top managers are seriously overpaid. The key determinant of local authority salary scales is the size of the population it serves. Not only is Malvern Hills the smallest district in the county, it is among the smallest 25 per cent in England. But this has not deterred our councillors from paying salaries appropriate to the largest 25 per cent of the district councils in England, most of whom are in less salubrious area than Malvern. According to a study by the West Midlands Local Government Association in January 2005, the maximum salaries of directors were 9 per cent above the national average for councils under 100,000 population and heads of service had maximum salaries 10 per cent above the national average for councils under 100,000 population. Is this why the council cannot afford to keep toilets open for the taxpayers? Alistair Macmillan, Alexandra Lane, Malvern. Caught short I suffer from urinary urge incontinence which means that when driving in Great Malvern I have been very reliant on the toilets in Victoria Road car park, where I can park right next to a toilet. Since closing the toilets I have already had one incident because it was too far to walk from my parking spot to Grange Road toilets. I now intend to carry on relieving myself in Victoria Road car park whether the toilets are open or not and if I come up against the law I will hold our elected masters responsible. J LIDINGTON, Croft Farm Drive, West Malvern. It's madness I think this is what used to be called (and may still be for all I know) `committing a public nuisance'. Not that I'd have grassed her up since the poor woman was clearly at her wits' end: a fractious child who simply can't hang on any longer, no public loo within easy distance - what on earth was she supposed to do? What I find most baffling about this entire business is that Malvern exists basically as a tourist town (the same applies to Upton). Tourist towns are supposed to be tourist-friendly. One of the most crucial amenities in a tourist town is a public loo - and frankly the more there are the better. Closing down public loos seems to me not just a stupendously bad idea but an act of sheer madness. And it's really no good arguing that the Grange Road toilet is still open. What, if for some reason, it has to close (for cleaning, because of vandalism, etc)? Tourists - Malvern's life-blood - will thus have nowhere to go. CHRISTOPHER LOWDER, Cradley. |